Trouble at School
by BananaLover3902
Summary: Len has a stomach ache at school, but refuses to accept help from his best friend or the nurse, mainly for one reason: It's super embarrassing.
1. Chapter 1

Len moved quickly to his next class. He wanted to be done with it so he could go to study hall and do his health homework that he forgot about, and would likely forget again if he didn't constantly remind himself about it. He sat down in his chair with a thump and looked around. People were talking quietly to each other. He shrugged and got out his notebook to start on the first slide of the notes that they did everyday. As he etched the word 'reactants' into his paper, he felt a subtle pop and winced. The dull but quick pain came from his stomach, he concluded, and he put his hand over it. He felt it rumble and winced again. Quickly he checked to see if anyone was looking at him, then, once he was sure no one was, he slipped his hand under his shirt and gently massaged his belly. The coolness of his fingertips on the warm, agitated flesh instantly brought relief and Len was able to remove his hand as quickly as he put it in. He continued writing down the first slide until he felt bubbles rising up in his throat. He burped and froze. First he wanted to make sure no one had heard him. If they had, they sure didn't show it. Next he wanted to know why it happened. Could he have swallowed some air by accident? No, that couldn't be right. He felt more air in his stomach, a LOT more. He couldn't have swallowed enough air to make that feeling just by talking or chewing gum. He felt full too, like he ate too much. But that was impossible. He hadn't had a soda lately, he never really drank soda or anything like that. Too sugary. He was always conscious about his health, which meant salads and no saturated fats. He hadn't even eaten breakfast that morning, so there was no way he could've eaten too much.

Len spent the rest of science secretly holding his stomach under the desk and burping quietly. No one heard him. He was glad to know that. He was free to go to study hall after that. For some reason, he didn't feel like working at all. He was lethargic, and just wanted to take a nap.

Len sat down at his table of which he was assigned on the first day of school and looked over his homework. He honestly felt like he was going to fall asleep if he tried to read his assignment. Instead, he took out his algebra homework. He only completed a few problems before another wave of pain shot through his abdomen. He winced, biting his lip. His hand crept down to his stomach and pressed up against it firmly. He burped again, a little louder than usual. He breathed a silent sigh and closed his eyes. He was always good about his manners, never belching rudely and always saying excuse me when one did occasionally escape. But this was a whole new story. The very thing that was labeled as rude was the thing that made him feel so much better. It had never felt that good to belch, ever. He forgot about manners for a moment and focused on the relief he felt. A second later, he opened his eyes and gasped. He checked to see if anyone heard him. No one did, but he noticed his friend looking at him from the front of the room. He was too far away to hear what had happened, but if he was looking, then he would obviously notice that something was off about the whole scene. Mikuo finished checking out his laptop and made his way over the Len's table. Len froze, wide eyed. He desperately hoped he would leave.

Mikuo arrived at the table and Len pretended to work on his algebra. He suppressed whatever gas wanted to escape at that moment, desperate to make sure it stayed in his stomach.

"Whatcha workin' on?" Mikuo plopped down next to Len and opened his laptop and began typing in his school email to sign in. Len held up the paper to show him the equations he was working on, afraid that if he spoke, the gas would seize the opportunity to escape at that moment.

Mikuo raised his eyebrow at him. "You know, you could have just said algebra," he pointed out. "Talking is an option." Len shrugged and kept writing on his paper. Mikuo sighed and clicked on the internet icon.

Len froze as he felt the gas trying to escape again. He swallowed repeatedly to try and force it back down. It hurt to keep it in, but his reputation was more important than his stomach ache. Suddenly, he felt his stomach gurgling. It loudly protested the forcing of the air into it and Len had to wrap his arms around his stomach from the sheer pain it brought along with the noise. Mikuo watched, not sure if he should laugh or get the nurse.

Mikuo put his hand on Len's shoulder. "You okay?" Len looked up at him and immediately removed his arms from his stomach. He nodded furiously and turned back to his homework, embarrassed by the whole scene. Mikuo furrowed his brows at him. He put his hand on his shoulder, getting his attention.

"Hey, does your stomach hurt or something?" he asked. Len was going to deny it, but Mikuo beat him to it. "I can go get the nurse. You could go lay down for a while or something." Len opened his mouth to speak, but instead what came out was a loud belch. Len widened his eyes and covered his mouth.

"Excuse me, I'm sorry!" he stuttered. "I-I didn't mean to-" He was cut off with another loud belch. He felt himself go red with embarrassment and he hid his face in his arms on the table. Everyone was sure to have heard _that_.

Mikuo got up and went into the lunch line area of the cafeteria and purchased a bottle of coke. Diet coke, to be specific. He knew about Len's healthy diet. Not that he would easily accept Coke anyway, diet or not. He sat back down next to Len and handed it to him. Len looked at it and shook his head, afraid to speak again.

"It's okay, dude, just go to the bathroom if you don't wanna do it here. You have to let that air out one way or another, and this is gonna help you do it. You'll feel a lot better, trust me." Len shook his head again.

"No, I..." He stifled a belch. "I don't drink soda. It's too *burp!* sugary..." He groaned and hid his face again. Mikuo sighed and stood up again. This time, he asked the teacher monitoring study hall if he could go down and see someone in the office. She told him yes and that he needed to take the hall pass and bring it back or he would be in trouble. He thanked her and made his way up to the office.

Mikuo knocked on the door and waited for someone to answer. When they did, he explained the situation to her. She nodded and thought for a moment, deciding what she would do.

"I think I should go see him. You said he was in study hall right now?" she asked. Mikuo nodded and led her back to the cafeteria. She tapped Len on the back to get his attention. Len was surprised to see the school nurse standing in front of him and straightened considerably. His stomach didn't like the sudden movement and protested again, even louder than before. He winced and hunched over, holding his stomach tightly. The nurse frowned and helped him stand up. She accepted the bottle of Coke from Mikuo and led him out of the lunchroom. Once he was in her office, she gave him the coke and told him to sit down on the bed over by the sink and drink as much as he felt he needed to and not to hold anything back. He gave her a look.

"Look sweetie, it isn't going to get better unless you do this. For some strange reason, you're gassy. Okay? Just listen to me when I tell you that this will help. I promise I won't look at you, and I'll make sure no one comes in here unless they're sick too, okay?" Len lost her when she accused him of being gassy and totally stopped listening and focused on the embarrassment of that statement. His face was red enough, she didn't need to say that.

"Okay?" Len suddenly realized he needed to answer her, but to what question? He opened his mouth to speak, but yet again was cut off by a thunderous belch. He covered his mouth with the hand that wasn't holding the Coke and widened his eyes. That's too many times in one day that he embarrassed himself like that. The nurse, however, took that as yes, and led him to the bed. Len sat down and looked around. It was a small room, actually, slightly larger than a closet. It had a sink, a bed, and a light switch. That was about it. Other than that, it was just a small room with no purpose.

The nurse felt his stomach as he lied down on the small bed. It was very hard and tight. The nurse brushed his hair out of his face and let him sit up.

"Okay sweetie, just burp until it's all gone, okay?" she looked him in the eye, speaking seriously. Len nodded reluctantly and averted his gaze to the floor. His stomach gurgled again, begging to be relieved. The nurse smiled at him and rubbed his back. She left the small closet of a room and went back to her desk to record physicals for the football players. She smiled when she heard a satisfying belch from behind her. She was going to comment about how good he was doing, but thought it might embarrass him and changed her mind. Instead, she decided to call his mom just to make her aware of what was going on. She always called the parents of the kids in her office whether they go home or not, just so the parents know what was going on. She dialed the number and held the phone up to her ear while it rang.

"Hello?" said the voice on the other end.

*beeelch*

"Excuse me?" The parent was obviously displeased with that greeting.

"Sorry Ma'am, that wasn't me," the nurse stated quickly. "This is the school calling you."

"Oh, sorry, I thought it was a prank caller or something," the mother said. "You should really tell that kid with you to mind their manners."

"Um, well, about that..."

"What?"

"That's precisely why I'm calling you," the nurse said. "Your son is having some serious abdominal pain. He's very bloated for some reason. We haven't figured out why yet, but we know that he needs to belch up all that air in his stomach in order to feel better. He's in my office now."

The parent was silent for quite a while.

"Ma'am?" the nurse questioned, wondering if she was still there.

"Yes, well, erm...Do I need to pick him up..?"

"That depends," the nurse said. "He's only just started burping. If he doesn't feel better soon I may send him home."

"Okay, right then."

"And ma'am," the nurse paused, wondering how to phrase her next sentence. "He's already embarrassed enough. I just want you to know that he can't control himself, and he isn't trying to be rude. If you do pick him up, please do not tease him or allow any other family members to do so. And don't impress upon him to use his manners. He's struggling right now, and I just want to make sure that when he goes back home, he isn't going to feel worse because he's holding it in. Okay?"

There was another silence.

"Yeah, okay...Can I speak to him for a moment?"

"Of course," the nurse said. She stood up and knocked softly on the door to the small room to let Len know she wanted in. The door opened and Len sat back down on the bed. The nurse handed him the phone.

"It's your mom," she said. "She wants to talk to you." Len hesitated before putting the phone to his ear.

"Hello?" He stifled a belch. The nurse sighed, knowing he would try to act normal for his family.

"Yeah," he mumbled. "No...No, I don't know..."

The nurse tried to figure out what they were talking about.

"I don't know, Mom, it just h-" he was cut off by another burp, this time slightly muffled by his hand. He sighed and stared at the floor. "I'm sorry, excuse me..." The nurse watched sadly as he continued to hold in his burps. Eventually he said goodbye and hung up, handing the phone back to the nurse. He sniffed and turned away from her, lying down on the bed with his back to the nurse. The nurse felt her heart ache for the kid. Honestly, if his mom were strict enough to make him cry about something he couldn't even control...

The nurse rubbed his back to offer some comfort.

After a while, the pressure became too much for him and he needed to get it out. He was too embarrassed to burp in front of the nurse voluntarily, and he definitely wasn't doing any other form of release, so he was stuck with an excruciating stomach ache with no way of feeling better. He moaned softly and held his tummy.

The nurse made him sit up and had him drink some more of the Coke, hoping he would relieve himself. He didn't. He simply stared at her when she asked if he felt any better.

"Honey, please," she begged, kneeling in front of him. "Please belch. I know it's embarrassing, but you need to do it if you're gonna feel better. I don't want you to hurt anymore than you do. Please just forget your manners for once and let it go." Len hesitated. His stomach _really_ hurt...

*buuuurp!*

The nurse smiled and ruffled his hair. "There you go," she coaxed. "Come on, keep going. Just one isn't enough to make it all better." Len continued burping and belching until he felt well enough to stop. The nurse started asking how about how it started. He explained to her everything that had happened that day without seeming to be ebarrassed to talk about it. Occassionally he would burp louder than before and turn away from her, but mostly he was okay with doing it in fron of her. He was feeling slightly better after five minutes. The nurse was just glad he finally stopped being embarrassed.

"Do you feel better now?" she asked. She smiled when he nodded. "Good, I'm proud of you." He blushed and looked at the floor.

"It's not something to be proud of..." he mumbled. The nurse sighed and fixed a few strands of hair that fell into his eyes.

"I know how your mom wants you to act," she stated blandly. "I know you're a good kid. You get good grades, you're very social, you're nice and respectful. There's absolutely no reason I can think of where I would be mad at you for needing to be excused from class because you're having a stomach ache. It's okay to burp, you know. It isn't a sin. And it's not like you're trying to be disrespectful either. You're trying your hardest to mind your manners and not do it in front of anyone. But sweetie, that's where I draw the line. Your health means more to me than your manners, okay? No one is mad at you. No one is going to judge you. It's not your fault."

Len continued to stare at the floor. "Mom told me if I ever do this again, I'm grounded. I'm pretty sure you're lying when you say no one is mad and me and no one will judge me." The nurse stared at him for a moment, then called his mom again. She told her to come pick up her son.

"What are you doing, I'm fine!" Len protested. "I can go back to class now! My stomach feels totally normal!"

The nurse only ignored him and waited for his mom to arrive. When she finally did, the nurse smiled and sat next to Len on the bed with her hand slowly rubbing his back. "Come," she gestured for his mom to come over to the bed. She did, slightly confused. The nurse pat his back a few times, then focused on his mom, standing in front of them looking down at them disapprovingly.

"I'd like to talk to you for a moment before he goes home," the nurse said. "Just a few things he said concerned me." His mom frowned at him and Len stared at the floor again.

"Alright," the nurse began. She pointed to Len's stomach. "Do you know what this is?" His mom looked at her like she was stupid.

"Um, yes?" she answered, as if it were a question.

"Good," the nurse responded. "And do you know what happens when you eat too fast?

"You...gain weight?"

"Sometimes, but not always. The answer I'm looking for is you swallow excess air. And do you know how that air comes out of the body?"

"Yes..." she mumbled, already regretting this conversation.

"Right, I thought so," the nurse said. "You see, this morning when Len was in class, his stomach started to hurt terribly. And just by accident, he burped. Not on purpose of course, it just slipped out. But it happened. The first thing he did was make sure that no one heard him. You know why?" She didn't give his mom time to answer. "Because he was minding his manners and was seeing if he needed to apologize to anyone for being rude. You see, he never tried to purposefully be disgusting or annoy people. He wasn't trying to make anyone upset, he wasn't looking for attention, he was just in a lot of pain and it accidentally slipped a few times."

His mother stared at her son. "So you're saying he was a glutton and over ate? That's why he's feeling so poorly?" The nurse sighed.

"Len, what did you eat today? List everything." the nurse demanded.

"Um..." he hesitated. "Well, I haven't eaten anything today. I drank that Coke Mikuo bought me after you gave it to me, but other than that, I haven't consumed anything..."

The nurse gave him a look. "First of all, you need to start eating breakfast. Second of all, that's more proof that you didn't cause this. There's no way, unless you binged last night." Len thought back to dinner the night before. He shook his head.

"No, I had a small dinner." he confirmed. "Chicken with peas, mashed potatoes, and a glass of milk. The small plates."

The nurse hesitated. "Len, I'm just curious...Have you ever gotten a stomach ache after eating ice cream? Or maybe eating cheese? Drinking milk?" Len thought for a moment.

"Um, yeah, sometimes my stomach hurts when I eat cheese, usually when it's on pizza though. I never eat it straight." The nurse inspected him carefully.

"Sweetie, I think you might be lactose intolerant..." Len widened his eyes.

"So this incident _was_ caused by him?" the nurse glared at Len's mom.

"The parent is usually the one who figures out that the child has lactose intolerance," she said. "I think it was rather you who caused it for not paying enough attention to your son." The mother looked offended. "Ma'am, please don't do this to him," she said to her. "He was bloated, in pain. He couldn't control himself even if he wanted to, which he did, and tried. It only made the pain worse. He _needed_ to burp, or else he wouldn't feel better. He told me that if he ever did this again, you would ground him. You're grounding your kid for being sick? He had a stomach ache. It's not his fault. Do not punish him, especially when he was trying to do as you said."

The mother huffed at the nurse and grabbed Len's hand, leading him out of the building. The nurse sighed and sat down at her desk, filling out a sick note for Len Kagamine. She figured he'd be back in her office again sometime.


	2. Chapter 2

The ride home was painful. His mom yelled at him the whole time. He simply nodded and kept his head low whenever she said something. He felt like crying. He hated it when his mom yelled at him. The nurse was right, though. She had no reason to yell at him. It wasn't his fault.

"And believe me, next time you do this," she looked at him to make sure he saw how serious she was. "you are grounded. End of story. So just remember that the next time you go and pull something like this." Len nodded, a tear escaping his eye. He wiped it away quickly, embarrassed to cry in front of his mom.

When they got home, Len went to his room and laid down on his bed. He sniffed and tried not to cry. His mom was just plain mean sometimes. He didn't mean to do anything to upset anyone. Besides, the only one who was upset was his mom. He sniffed. Yeah, it was all her. It was her fault in the first place. If she had known about him being lactose intolerant, he wouldn't even be in this situation.

Len stood up and walked over to his dresser, changing into something more comfortable. For some reason, the jeans he was wearing were feeling kinda tight. He knew he hadn't gained any weight, he weighed himself that morning. Same as yesterday. He was just uncomfortably full. Once he changed, he felt a little better. He didn't feel like he needed to belch anymore, thank god. But he knew his mom would still mention something when he left his room. He refused to go downstairs in fear of his mom seeing him. But when the number 3 had shown up on his clock, he felt too hungry to care. Slowly, he made his way downstairs.

He lucked out when he saw his parents were gone, probably back at work. He breathed a sigh of relief and opened the fridge. Usually he cooked his own lunch on Saturdays which mainly consisted of fish and some form of steamed vegetable along with whatever grains they had at the moment and a protein shake with a glass of water. There were no rolls, so he substituted with a piece of toasted whole-grain bread to go with tuna and celery sticks, not steamed. He grabbed a protein shake and headed over to the table. He ate his food in silence and then drank the protein shake. He never really liked the taste of them, preferring water more. He sat down on the couch, too tired to go for a walk like he usually did after he ate. He watched some reality TV show he'd never seen before, not really following the story. He laughed at the stupidity of a character and ended it with a big burp. He widened his eyes and curled up on the couch with his hand over his mouth. Oh no. Not again.

Len ran back upstairs to his room and paced. What had he eaten that caused that? Relax, relax. It was only one burp. It's normal to burp a few times after you eat. But the feeling of fullness despite having eating a small amount made him think otherwise. He suppressed more belches and laid down on his bed in a heap. He groaned. What was he gonna tell his mom? Nothing. Don't let her find out. He didn't want her to yell at him again. He stayed up in his room and practiced holding in his burps. Finally, he mastered the art of suppression and felt comfortable enough to go back downstairs. He watched some more TV until he heard a car in the driveway. He hurriedly turned off the TV and raced over to the treadmill. He dabbed some water on his forehead and underarms and started jogging. He hoped his mom wouldn't notice the lack of B.O. The front door opened, and his parents walked in. He kept on jogging and pretended not to notice them. His dad smiled at him and hung his coat on the rack.

"Get a good workout while we were gone?" he asked, proud of his son. Len turned off the treadmill, panting. Running made his stomach hurt and he felt like he might puke if he didn't breathe so heavily. He gave a halfhearted smile to his father, out of breath.

"Yeah, just finishing my cool down," he responded. He grabbed a towel and dabbed his face with it. He was surprised to find that there was actual sweat on it. He'd only jogged for a minute, at most. How was he already sweating?

"You think you could handle some more?" his dad asked, taking off his shoes. "I've been meaning to get a workout in with you for some time now, but there's never been enough time. I think tonight is a good night for me." Len inwardly groaned, but he didn't let his smile falter.

"Sure," he said. He regretted his decision the moment he suppressed another belch.

His dad smiled at him and clapped his hands. "Great, just give me a sec to go change." Len nodded and sat down on the bench press. He felt his stomach cramping up.

Len's mom walked up to him. "I trust that the issue has been resolved?" Len had to answer yes. He nodded and she smiled.

His mom left to go make dinner and his dad came back wearing his workout clothes. Len watched him for a while, not wanting to lift weights at all. Jogging put him in a lot of pain.

"You just gonna stand there, boy?" his dad asked, his voice strained a little from putting all his strength in lifting the bar. Len snapped back into reality and went over to the other bench press and added his weights on. He usually did some endurance lifting, about 25 pounds, but constant lifting for half an hour. Tonight he knew he couldn't do it. He slipped 35 pounds on the bar and prepared himself to lift. He successfully lifted it quite a few times, being used to it. He normally used more weight than this if he wasn't doing endurance, but he thought that he might not be able to hold the bar up if his stomach started cramping up again and he didn't want 50 pounds on his chest.

He'd been doing good for about ten minutes, when he felt his stomach muscles contract painfully. He gasped and the bar fell a little, only catching it slightly before he dropped it. His father was startled and he put his bar back up on the hooks. He helped Len put his bar back up and sit up. "You okay?" he asked, worried his son had hurt himself. Len nodded, not wanting to tell him what was wrong.

"Yeah, I think I pulled a muscle…" Len stood up, holding his left arm, hoping to convince his dad. "I think I'm done. I'll go take a shower and help Mom with dinner."

His dad frowned at him. He was hoping for a longer workout, they'd only just started. But he had done a workout already before, so he wasn't gonna push him. He'd probably overworked himself.

Len took a shower, not lying about that part. Warm showers always made him feel better when he was feeling poorly, though usually it was just a headache or something. He burped freely there, not concerned about noise. He played music when he took a shower, so he knew that no one would hear him.

The warmth of the water felt surprisingly good on his belly. He sat down and decided to take a bath instead, the act of standing too much for his fragile abdomen. The bath felt even nicer. He fell asleep in the water, so warm.

The shout from his mom woke him up. She was pounding on the bathroom door, telling him to hurry up. Len sat up abruptly, finding that the water had gotten surprisingly cold in the time he was asleep. He jumped out and dried off with a towel and put some fresh clothes on and wrapped a towel around his head. He left the bathroom and went back to his room. He felt sick to his stomach, almost like he would puke. He was so uncomfortable.

"Len, dinner!" his mother's voice called out from downstairs. Len groaned. He made no move to go to the dining room.

Downstairs, his parents were sitting at the table waiting for their son. They waited several minutes before his dad suggested that she call him down again, thinking he might not have heard her. So she did. And he still didn't come. His mom grew frustrated and stood up. His dad followed.

"Has he been acting strange to you?" his mom asked his dad as they made their way upstairs to his room.

"Yeah, he was taking a really long shower," he responded, thinking about how Len was acting different from usual. "He also used less weight today. Stopped early, too. Said he pulled a muscle."

"Well I think he's being lazy today," she said. "Trying to get out of school."

"What?" He widened his eyes at hearing that. She nodded back.

"Mhm," she said. "Faking being sick so I would take him home. You know what he did? Burped in class. Burping! Honestly, I don't understand that boy." His dad felt a little angry at his son. He'd had enough of his rudeness. He knocked on the door.

"Len, come downstairs like your mother asked you to!" he shouted. No response. He opened the door and they walked in. Len was lying in bed under the covers, not even his head visible.

"Len, wake up! This is completely unacceptable!" his mother shouted. "I'm tired of your rudeness, boy. Straighten up." The blankets didn't move.

"For pete's sake," his dad said. He pulled the blankets off, prepared to yell at him. He froze when he saw him though.

Len was curled up in a ball, tears streaming from his eyes. His dad sat down on the edge of his bed and put his hand on his back.

"Hey, what's the matter?" he asked. Len let out a sob, failing to keep from crying. His dad rubbed his back in big circles.

"I don't feel good," he mumbled, his voice strained from crying. His shoulders shook as he sobbed. His mom felt his forehead, confused when she pulled away without feeling a bit of warmth.

"What hurts?" his dad asked. Len sniffed and curled up tighter.

"My stomach…" He cried some more. His parents looked at each other worriedly. So maybe he wasn't just trying to get out of class. His dad kept rubbing his back. He didn't know what else to do.

"Is it gas?" his mom finally asked. Len breathed in a deep, shaky breath.

"Worse," he mumbled. "I'm nauseous." His mom frowned and fixed his hair.

"You think you can handle some dinner?" she asked in a whisper.

"I just wanna sleep…" Len sniffed, trying to stop crying. He belched loudly. He moaned and buried his face in his pillow. His mom pouted. She felt bad for yelling at him. Normally she could tell when he was lying. He got all red faced, like he was embarrassed or something. Maybe he was legitimately embarrassed when she saw him. He had to burp in front of a girl repeatedly. Of course he would be embarrassed. She felt stupid for not thinking about that. She was just so mad at him for not using his manners and burping in a public setting. He embarrassed her. But now she realized that he really was sick.

She dug her arms underneath him and lifted him up. "C'mere," she said. She pulled him into her lap and wrapped her arms around him. He sniffed and hugged her back.

"You okay?" she asked, patting his back. He nodded and rested his head on her shoulder. He muffled a burp by closing his mouth. His mom felt his stomach gurgling, pressed up against her own belly. She frowned and pat his back some more.

"It's okay, baby, just let it out," she said. "I'm really sorry I didn't believe you earlier, I was just embarrassed about what you did. I didn't think you were really hurt." Len mumbled that it was okay and held onto her loosely. His dad watched her for a while. He knew she was doing it wrong, but Len looked like he was enjoying the hug, so he waited a while before mentioning anything.

"Dear," he said, making her look at him. "If he's got air in his stomach, patting his back won't help, he's too big for that. He's gotta sit up and have someone rub his belly. That'll help." She pulled back from Len a little and looked at him. He seemed miserable. She pouted.

"Baby, you must've been holding that in all day," she said. She set him down on the bed and placed her hand on his belly. It felt tight and hard. She frowned. "All that needs to come out." She looked at her husband. He nodded and put his hand on Len's stomach and moved it in a circle, putting pressure on it, but not too much pressure.

"Like that," he said. She nodded and copied him. She felt the rumble in his belly as she made her third circle. Len flushed red and looked away from his parents. He burped quietly, unable to contain it. His mom grimaced, then smiled. She'd have to get used to the noise. Len felt slightly better. He wished he could just push it all out at once and get it over with.

Len flexed his abdominal muscles. There was still tightness to his belly, very uncomfortably so.

Len's mom rubbed his tummy until most of the burps were gone. Len's stomach was visibly deflated. He felt much better, no longer sick to his stomach. He belched a really long belch and sighed. He closed his eyes and relaxed. When he opened them, he saw his parents staring at him, shocked. Len flushed again.

"What?" he asked, embarrassed. His mom averted her gaze to the floor. His dad smirked.

"I've never heard a burp that big," he said. "Impressive."

His mom smacked his arm and scolded him. Len laughed, only to have it interrupted by another burp, which made both of them laugh. Soon everyone was cracking up, even his mom. The laughter was infectious. After the laughter had died down, Len relaxed and rested a hand on his tummy. He felt much better. His mom smiled at him. Of course, she realized that this would likely happen again, especially since he was lactose intolerant. She sighed as she thought to herself. She wouldn't make him hold it in anymore. If it cause him this much pain, no way. She would have to get used to the noise.

"Hey sweetie?" she asked. Len looked at her. "I know how you're good about your manners. But from now on, belch as loud as you can." Len widened his eyes at her statement.

"What?"

"I don't want to see you in this much pain ever again," she said. "Belch whenever you need to, and don't bother with the noise. Although I'd like you to say excuse me." Len nodded.

"Can do," he said. He burped again. "Excuse me." His mom smiled and pat his tummy.

"You feel better sweetie?" Len nodded. She smiled. "Then let's get downstairs and eat, I'm starving." Len smiled. He was ready to eat too.


End file.
